Operating devices for light-emitting means, for example LED converter devices, are used in order to supply electrical energy to the light-emitting means. Corresponding electrical circuits are provided with which the operating device to which, for example, the mains voltage is supplied as input voltage achieves a supply of energy to the light-emitting means with a specific voltage, a specific current or a specific power. In general, it is desirable to make an operating device configurable such that it is usable for different light-emitting means. For this purpose, a user-defined setting option can be provided with which the operating device can be switched over, for example, between different output currents and/or output powers and/or output voltages.
For safety reasons, operating devices for light-emitting means have electrical isolation, wherein a galvanically decoupled energy transfer between a region with a relatively high voltage and a region with a relatively low voltage takes place. The galvanically decoupled energy transfer can be achieved by the use of a transformer or another transfer device. Such galvanic isolation or electrical isolation is required in the case of operating devices for light-emitting means for safety reasons in order to separate an SELV region from regions with a relatively high supply voltage, in particular mains voltage, by means of a so-called potential barrier or SELV barrier. For safety reasons, it is often necessary for at least those elements which can be set by the end user to be provided in the SELV region of the operating device. If setting elements are provided in the SELV region for safety reasons, the SELV region can have corresponding evaluation logic for determining the setting selected by the user. This setting can be transferred by the secondary-side logic via a digital interface via the SELV barrier in order to be used by control logic in the non-SELV region. The use of corresponding logic in the SELV region, i.e. on the secondary side of a transfer device, is associated with additional costs and additional complexity, however.
LED modules themselves can have resistances which act as a signature in respect of the class to which the LEDs used belong. The resistances can be read from logic integrated in the LED module and be used to drive switches in the LED module. The logic integrated in the LED module can have a data interface in order to feed back data to other devices. Even in the case of such approaches, the use of corresponding logic for reading the signature in the SELV region, for example in the LED module, is necessary.
There is a need for apparatuses and methods which provide improvements in respect of the mentioned aims. In particular, there is a need for apparatuses and methods in which simple adjustability of the operation, for example to different output currents, can be achieved, even when no data interface is provided.